Hong Kong University students behaved ‘like they were on drugs’ says Arthur Li
Controversial new HKU council chairman accuses Civic Party of ‘manipulating’ students and inciting them to besiege governing body meeting
The embattled chairman of the University of Hong Kong’s governing council yesterday accused students of behaving like they were on drugs when they besieged a meeting he was holding on Tuesday, and openly blamed pan-democrat politicians for manipulating them.
Two days after Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung and other council members were trapped for hours by hundreds of students demanding a review of the governing body’s structure, the former education secretary called a press conference to hit out at them.
“Sadly, this small number of students are rather like someone who’s taken drugs, who’s been poisoned by drugs,” Li said. “And they’ve been manipulated.”
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He named the Civic Party as the culprit, saying it had “poisoned” the students’ minds and was responsible for political interference. To back his allegations, Li noted that Civic Party heavyweight Audrey Eu Yuet-mee was there at the Tuesday siege – which she promptly denied.
Li was also suspicious about the participation of HKU student leader Yvonne Leung Lai-kwok, who had worked as Civic Party lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit’s intern. And he pointed at the presence of radical lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung’s assistant and other pan-democrats at the rowdy protest.
Those he blamed were outraged. The students denied being controlled by any politician and said Li had “impaired mutual trust”. The Civic Party denied involvement and demanded Li apologise to students and alumni.
Li, dubbed “King Arthur” and “Tsar” by critics who see him as a heavy-handed agent planted at HKU by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, said he did not believe there had been political inteference in the running of the university through pro-Beijing newspapers. They had broken the news about pro-democracy law professor Johannes Chan Man-mun being shortlisted for a pro-vice-chancellor’s post at HKU, and published a series of articles attacking him.